ICYMI: Week of 11/4/16

Welcome back to In Case You Missed It, a.k.a. ICYMI, our weekly blog roundup of the latest stories around the @fwd_mvt and #Episcopal world. Here are some of the topics that captured our attention this week.

This week marked a famed triduum in the Church: All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and last but not least: All Brackets’ Day. That’s right: Lent Madness is here! OK, we have juuust a few more days until Lent. But the brackets are here, and you can now see who will be facing off in the Battle of the Bands (Fanny Crosby vs. G.F. Handel), the Clash of the Consonants (Joseph Schereschewsky vs. Nikolaus von Zinzendorf) and many more matchups.

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You can also pre-order the 2017 Saintly Scorecard and Bracket Poster–perfect for your church, home, or the saintly location of your choosing.

On a more serious triduum note, we loved what #GrowChristians editor Nurya Love Parish wrote for All Saints’ Day, drawing a connection between cross-country season and “life’s relay race.” A quote:

“Running cross-country initiates you into a tribe with new language and measurements of success. What matters most is if you set a PR (personal record); what matters next is how the whole XC (cross-country) team is faring. The novel language and concepts remind me of my conversion. When I became an Episcopalian, there were plenty of new words and acronyms (vestry, piscina, ECW). And there were new measurements of success: what do you mean, Jesus, when you say the last shall be first?”

Some other fun news for the #GrowChristians community: Grow Christians now has its own Facebook page! Be sure to like GC on FB now to stay in the loop with all things #Episcopal #parenting. And if you love #GrowChristians, check out our other resource for parents: Daily Devo.

Lodged between the merriment of All Saints’ Day and the Madness of All Brackets’ Day is the often-overlooked (or misunderstood) All Souls’ Day. This is the one that really challenges us, writes Scott Gunn, because in a society “allergic to death” it deals with the mortality of those we love. Scott’s piece on All Souls’ for Forward Today was powerful stuff. You can read it here.

Photo by flickr user Russ2009 / Creative Commons

Are you feeling stressed about the election? You are not alone. As we enter the final days of this contentious time, Episcopal News shared an excellent look at what Episcopal churches across the country are doing to help with election season anxiety. We were happy to see the mention of Forward Movement’s A Season of Prayer: For an Election. There are many other useful resources shared in the article as well.

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We hope you’ll join us in prayer in these final days before the election, and beyond. Have a peaceful weekend.